John Nieman
I turn 74 in a few weeks and so there’s a lot of looking back. I have a great life and it’s because of the many influences I’ve been fortunate enough to have. There was the shining example of love and devotion given me by my parents, John and Jean.
The relentless work ethic and striving for excellence of my sister Lisa. My brother Bill’s ability to give unconditional love to everyone to whom he came in contact. The joy, laughter and beautiful family bonds formed by my son’s family Jeff, Stephanie, Burke, and Larkin.
My early Catholic education taught me about self-determination and individual responsibility. The lyrics of Dylan and Springsteen. The far-too-numerous-to-name friends, colleagues and soccer mates who taught me that family is much more than blood. And the love, humor, devotion, loyalty and support of the finest partner anyone could hope for in Martha.
And the Carolina Way, written, directed and produced by Dean Smith.
Coach Smith’s strong stances against segregation, racism and the death penalty shaped my and certainly my son’s legal careers. Truth is, the total amount of time that I spent in one-on-one or small group conversations with Coach Smith would be less than an hour.
My admiration and idealization of him stem from my observations of him as a man and a coach. For many, if not most, coaches, the top priority is winning. For Coach Smith and the Carolina Way the number one priority was and is the player. From the absolute star player to the assistant manager for the freshman team, the Carolina Way was to be concerned not just for the person’s time spent at Carolina, but for their life.
Coach Smith was interested in and did whatever he could for his players from the time he met them for the rest of his life. He was just as interested and concerned about your 40s and 50s as he was about your teens and twenties. The last time we spoke was in the mid 80s. We hadn’t seen or spoken to each other since the early 70s, but somehow he knew that Jeff and I were living in Chapel Hill and he said he was hoping he’d run into me. I never played for him. We knew each other tangentially, but that was the Carolina Way.
I read where the Daily Tar Heel was criticized harshly recently because of their annual April Fool’s Day satirical issue. I remember that edition in 1972. They wrote about one of the Tarheel basketball players, a sophomore who rarely got into the game, making the All-ACC team. I guess they thought it was funny. That player was my roommate. He had been a highly recruited player in both football and basketball by the likes of Notre Dame and others. He had been a standout on the freshman team but during his sophomore year he was behind upperclassmen on the depth chart. The story certainly hurt his feelings, but he believed in Coach Smith and he believed in the Carolina Way.
By his senior year, he WAS All-ACC, drafted by the Hawks in the NBA and the Cougars in the ABA and played for the Virginia Squires and the Indiana Pacers. When his basketball career was over he went to go see Coach Smith to see what he would do next in his life. He told the coach that he had gotten to like playing golf and he became an assistant golf pro at Pinehurst Country Club while he sorted out what to do next. I got to play Pinehurst No.2! The Carolina Way.
And that is why I have some sadness with our new basketball hire. So many have said that Dean Smith would not have been able to coach in these days of portals and payments. I just have to disagree. I think a coach who prioritizes the person who is a player and truly cares about their life more than their performance could manage to succeed on a basketball court in any age. At least that is my hope.
But I understand that time goes on. I support and believe that success will come for Tar Heel basketball under Coach Malone. But I hope you can understand my feelings of loss and regret.
No regrets but plenty of loss with regard to the Index. Fat Boy Index: 248